LEXINGTON, Ky. (LEX 18) — Seven and a half years after being charged with robbing and stabbing an elderly woman, David Joel Williams was sentenced in Fayette Circuit Court on a murder conviction.
In 2018, two years after the attack, Hilda Mae Pike died. The Commonwealth’s Attorney successfully argued that her death was a direct result of the stab wounds she sustained and amended the charge to murder with a superseding indictment.
“We are thankful for the murder conviction because it was murder, not an assault,” Hilda Mae’s daughter, Connie Rogers, said after the judge issued her sentence.
While prosecutors were able to successfully argue the murder case, Williams’ attorney presented a much different cause of death, which will undoubtedly be a part of the appeal she plans to file.
“She already had advanced or in-stage COPD,” Marcel Radomile stated. “That makes it worse because she was vulnerable, but she was already on oxygen (at the time of the attack),” she continued before confirming her intent to appeal the decision.
Williams was sentenced to 25 years for the murder and an additional 10 years for burglary. During impact statements read by Rogers and other family members, they urged Diane Minnifield to make those sentences run consecutively. Still, she chose the jury’s recommendation of concurrent sentences.
Regardless of how much time he’ll serve, this part is finally over. The trial was contentious at times, and it’s been a very long process for the family members.
“Just waiting for seven and a half years, it’s opened up all of the wounds again, but now it’s time to heal,” Rogers said.
